Brooklyn Botanic Garden Wedding Guide (2028): Cost & Capacity

Brooklyn Botanic Garden covers 52 acres between the Brooklyn Museum and Prospect Park. The state set the land aside in 1897, and the Garden opened in 1911 on a plan by the Olmsted Brothers. It has been adding gardens ever since: the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden in 1915, the Cranford Rose Garden in 1928, the ‘Kanzan’ cherries of Cherry Esplanade in 1941. An independent nonprofit runs it, and it is a public garden first and a wedding venue second.

It gives you two rooms to choose from. The Palm House is the Garden’s original glass conservatory, dedicated in 1917 and designed by McKim, Mead & White, the firm behind the Brooklyn Museum next door. It seats 220 with a dance floor and opens onto the Lily Pool Terrace. The Lillian and Amy Goldman Atrium arrived in 2012: a leaf-shaped glass room under a living roof, seating 110 with dancing, with Cherry Esplanade as its ceremony site.

The day runs the same way in both. Ceremony in the gardens, cocktails outside, dinner and dancing under glass. For 2028 the room costs $3,000 to $13,500, food and drink must reach a minimum of $8,800 to $55,000 depending on the date, and the menu starts at $228 a head. The tradeoff is easy to state. You get a real landscape inside the city and a permanent room for dinner whatever the weather. In exchange you accept a five-hour event, a strict rulebook and no tents.

• Location: Brooklyn, New York City, beside the Brooklyn Museum and Prospect Park
• Venue type: Public botanic garden with two separately booked event rooms, both heated and air-conditioned
• 2028 room rental: Palm House $3,500 to $13,500. Atrium $3,000 to $8,800
• 2028 food-and-drink minimum: Palm House $18,000 to $55,000. Atrium $8,800 to $23,750
• Catering: Union Square Events, exclusive, from $228 per person
• Other charges: $4,500 Wedding Day Fee, $850 Patron membership, 26% administration, 8.875% sales tax
• Capacity with dancing: Palm House 220. Atrium 110
• Sweet spot: 150 to 200 guests in the Palm House, 80 to 100 in the Atrium
• Rain plan: Ceremony and cocktails move indoors. No tents
• Overnight rooms: None
• Event length: Five hours from the invitation time, Friday to Sunday. Standard finish 11 p.m., hard stop 1 a.m.
• Planner: Required
• Typical total budget: $88,000 to $126,000 for 100 guests at the Atrium, $159,000 to $224,000 for 200 at the Palm House, both on a peak Saturday*
• Getting there: 2 or 3 train to Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum. JFK or LaGuardia, 45 to 90 minutes by car
• Best for: A garden ceremony and a glasshouse dinner without leaving the city
• Main consideration: The Saturday minimum at the Palm House, and a wet-weather plan with no tent

*RoamRecs planning estimate.

The Garden is for couples who want a garden wedding without leaving the city, and who are happy to eat dinner indoors on the best evening of the year. That second half matters. Dinner and dancing are always under glass here. The gardens are for the ceremony and the cocktail hour, and the room is where you spend three of your five hours. Choose the room first.

The Palm House is why most couples book. It was built as the Garden’s conservatory and it still feels like one: glass on every side, the lily pools just outside the doors, the planting visible from the tables until the light goes. It is at its best with 150 to 200 guests. That leaves room for a real dance floor, a band and servers who can move.

The Atrium is a different wedding. It is smaller and modern, paneled in ginkgo wood from trees that grew on the site, with a curved glass wall, its own terrace and Cherry Esplanade a few steps away. It suits 80 to 100. At 110 the dance floor needs drawing before you commit, and above that the Palm House is the easier room.

The money works differently here than at most venues, and it is the one thing to understand before the tour. Every date carries a food-and-drink minimum. On a peak Saturday at the Palm House it is $55,000, and even 220 guests on the starting menu do not reach it. So a shorter guest list does not make that Saturday cheaper. Moving to Friday or Sunday does, by about $20,000 for 200 guests. If you want the June Saturday anyway, spend the gap on a better menu and enjoy it.

The rulebook is the other thing that comes with the territory. This is a museum of living plants. Your vendors load in that afternoon and everything leaves that night. There are no tents, no petals, no rehearsal and no subwoofers, and the music stops when your five hours are up. A planner is required, and you will be glad of it.

Best for: a garden ceremony and a glasshouse dinner in the middle of Brooklyn, with guests who can arrive by subway and sleep anywhere in the city.

Think twice if: you want a tented outdoor dinner, a party that runs past 1 a.m., a do-it- yourself setup or everyone sleeping on site.

Six things make up the bill: the room, the food and drink, a $4,500 Wedding Day Fee, an $850 Patron membership, a 26% administrative charge and 8.875% sales tax.

2028 room rental and food-and-drink minimums

The rental buys five hours from the time on the invitation: one for arrival and the ceremony, four for the reception. Vendors get the five hours before that to set up.

Every date also carries a minimum spend on food and drink. You pay your menu total or the minimum, whichever is higher. Each line below gives the room rental first, then the minimum.

Palm House

• May, June, September, October: Friday $8,200 and $38,400. Saturday $13,500 and $55,000. Sunday $7,500 and $30,500.
• March, April, November: Friday $7,000 and $24,125. Saturday $9,500 and $28,125. Sunday $6,800 and $20,125.
• July, August: Friday $6,500 and $29,350. Saturday $8,800 and $47,250. Sunday $6,300 and $24,500.
• December, January, February: Friday $4,000 and $22,000. Saturday $6,000 and $26,000. Sunday $3,500 and $18,000.

Atrium

• May, June, September, October: Friday $6,000 and $17,500. Saturday $8,800 and $23,750. Sunday $5,800 and $15,000.
• March, April, November: Friday $4,800 and $13,250. Saturday $6,000 and $18,500. Sunday $4,300 and $11,875.
• July, August: Friday $4,000 and $15,500. Saturday $6,000 and $21,125. Sunday $3,800 and $13,500.
• December, January, February: Friday $3,200 and $11,000. Saturday $4,200 and $14,950. Sunday $3,000 and $8,800.

The line to look at twice is the Palm House in March, April and November. The Saturday minimum drops to $28,125, about half the peak figure, and a wedding of 125 covers it on the starting menu. That is the same room for a very different commitment.

The other charges

• Wedding Day Fee, $4,500: a VIP server for up to nine hours, ceremony setup and breakdown with white folding chairs, coat-check and restroom attendants, and a half- hour reception before guests arrive for up to 30 family and wedding-party members.
• Patron membership, $850: the Garden asks everyone who hosts an event to join at Patron level.
• Administration, 26%: charged on food, drink and room rental. Treat it as a fee and budget staff gratuities on top.
• Sales tax, 8.875%: charged on food, drink, room rental, administration and the Wedding Day Fee.

What it adds up to

On a peak Saturday with the starting menu, the venue and catering bill comes to about $50,000 for 100 guests at the Atrium and about $100,000 for 200 at the Palm House. Put the same 200 guests on a Friday or Sunday and it is about $80,000. A winter Sunday starts at about $22,000 at the Atrium and $35,000 at the Palm House.

The $228 menu is a full evening, and it comes with the furniture.

• A four-hour premium bar, two crafted cocktails at cocktail hour and a toast pour at dinner
• Six passed canapés, one food station and a bar snack
• A two-course seated dinner with one main course
• A wedding cake from Lulu Cake Boutique, with coffee and tea on request
• White Chiavari chairs, cocktail and dinner tables, white linens, china, flatware and glassware
• A 16-by-28-foot dance floor

Design around rounds of ten. The package is planned on 60-inch round tables, and larger rounds and long tables are in short supply. If long tables matter to you, price them as rentals from the start.

There is no house sound system. Budget for sound even if all you need is a microphone for the vows.

Upgrades and what they cost

• Extra crafted cocktail: $18 per person
• Extra passed canapé: $6 per person
• Extra cocktail-hour food station: $28 per person, per hour
• First course: $18 per person
• Additional main course: $30 per person
• Passed sweets: $5 per person, per sweet, per half-hour
• Late-night bites: $9 per person, per bite, per hour
• Takeaways: $9 each
• Premium wine: $12 per person for one wine, $18 for two, $24 for three
• Super-premium spirits: $38 per person

If your date’s minimum is higher than your menu total, this list is how you close the gap. Spend it where guests will notice: a first course, better wine, and food on the dance floor at 10 p.m.

Booking and payment

Book the tour first. The Garden requires an in-person visit before it will host your wedding, and it does not hold dates as a courtesy. A date is held once you ask for a contract, and you have seven days to sign it.

The first payment is the full room rental and membership plus half the estimated catering. If you are planning from another city, build an early trip around the tour.

A complete wedding at the Garden lands in these ranges. They are RoamRecs planning estimates for one wedding day in May, June, September or October 2028, with the starting menu, a planner and a DJ.

• 100 guests, Atrium, Saturday: $88,000 to $126,000
• 150 guests, Palm House, Friday: $115,000 to $166,000
• 200 guests, Palm House, Saturday: $159,000 to $224,000

Here is where the money goes at 200 guests on a Palm House Saturday:

• Room, catering to the $55,000 minimum, Wedding Day Fee, administration, tax and membership: about $100,000
• Planner: $8,000 to $16,000
• Flowers, design and furniture upgrades: $18,000 to $39,000
• Photography and video: $10,000 to $20,000
• Music, sound and lighting: $9,000 to $18,500
• Transport, officiant, stationery, insurance and umbrellas: $5,800 to $13,000
• Staff gratuities: $3,000 to $6,500

Add a 10% cushion on everything except the venue bill and you arrive at the range above.

Three things move the total. The day: Friday or Sunday takes about $20,000 off a 200- guest Palm House wedding. The room: on peak dates the Atrium’s minimums are less than half the Palm House’s, so 100 guests there is a smaller wedding with a smaller bill. Ambition: these figures buy a handsome, well-run evening. A band, a floral installation or a full furniture swap will take you past them.

The ranges leave out hotels, attire, a welcome party, a brunch and any after-party.

The Palm House seats 220 with a dance floor and is most comfortable with 150 to 200. The Atrium seats 110 with a dance floor and is most comfortable with 80 to 100.

• Palm House: Dinner and dancing. 220 seated with a dance floor, 250 seated without one, 275 standing.
• Lily Pool Terrace: Palm House cocktails. Outdoors, beside the lily pools.
• Conservatory: Palm House cocktails in wet weather. Indoors.
• Atrium: Dinner and dancing. 110 seated with a dance floor, 130 seated without one, 150 standing.
• Atrium terrace: Atrium cocktails. Outdoors.
• Cherry Esplanade: Atrium ceremonies. A lawn lined with ‘Kanzan’ cherries.
• Lounges: One in each venue, for about six adults.

How to use the Palm House

Ceremony in the gardens, drinks on the Lily Pool Terrace, then through the doors for dinner. The terrace was dedicated in 1921, four years after the glasshouse, and the two were made for each other. Guests walk a few yards and the evening changes gear.

Inside, follow the Garden’s own 150-guest plan: round tables around a central dance floor, with the bar and the band at the edges. Keep that shape as the list grows. The temptation at 200 is to fill every gap with a table, and the room is better when you do not.

How to use the Atrium

Ceremony on Cherry Esplanade, drinks on the terrace, dinner inside. The room is leaf- shaped, and its glass wall follows the curve. After dark, lit from inside, it reads as a lantern among the trees.

Ask for the dance floor drawn at your guest count before you design anything. The Garden’s 100-guest plan shows dinner in the main room and cocktails outside, and the floor has to fit between the tables.

One thing to know about privacy

You are renting your room, your ceremony site and your cocktail space. The rest of the Garden is not yours, and the other room may be hosting its own wedding the same evening. In practice the two venues sit apart and run separately, but do not promise guests a private garden.

The ceremony and cocktails move indoors, and dinner was always going to be there. That is the strength of this venue. Rain changes the first two hours, and the main event is untouched.

Tents of any size are not allowed, and neither are outdoor heaters.

• Palm House: The ceremony moves into the Palm House. Guests have cocktails in the Conservatory while the room is turned around for dinner.
• Atrium: The ceremony moves into the main room. Guests have cocktails in the adjoining indoor space while the room is reset.

The turnaround is the part to manage. For an hour, your guests need somewhere pleasant to stand with a drink while ceremony chairs become dinner tables. See that space on your tour and decide whether you would still love the day.

The Garden’s sample plans seat 150 for an indoor ceremony in the Palm House and 100 in the Atrium. If your Palm House list is longer than 150, get the indoor ceremony drawn for your number before you sign. Standing rows at the back are a reasonable answer. Finding out in the week of the wedding is not.

Then plan the walk as well as the rooms. Have a stack of umbrellas at the gate, a short, step-free route for anyone using a wheelchair or a cane, and one person with the authority to make the weather call by an agreed hour.

Nobody sleeps at the Garden. There are no bedrooms and no hotel attached. Each venue has a small lounge for about six adults, which opens two hours before the invitation time.

Get ready at the hotel and arrive dressed. Use the lounge for touch-ups and a quiet ten minutes, and offer it to a grandparent who needs a seat before the ceremony.

Where should wedding guests stay?

Put the block in Downtown Brooklyn or Boerum Hill. Pick one main hotel and a second at a different price, and keep the core group out of Manhattan and Williamsburg. Two pickup points make the shuttles simple, and both neighborhoods are a short, direct ride from the Garden on the 2 or 3 train.

Ace Hotel Brooklyn, 252 Schermerhorn Street. Our first choice for the couple and their friends. It is design-led, the suites work for getting ready, and it feels like part of the weekend. About 15 to 30 minutes by car.

New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, 333 Adams Street. The practical block: large, conventional and easy for a group pickup. About 20 to 35 minutes.

1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, 60 Furman Street. The splurge, on the waterfront at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Right for parents or for guests making a holiday of it. About 20 to 40 minutes.

Union Square Events does the food

Catering is exclusive to Union Square Events, the events company Danny Meyer founded in 2005. You are getting a serious New York caterer as part of the venue, which is a large part of what the minimums buy.

The menu has vegan and gluten-free options. Send the team a full list of dietary needs early. Tastings are group events held four times a year, two to three months before your date, so you will choose the venue on the sample menus and the company’s reputation.

Kosher weddings go through one of two partner caterers, Foremost or Simply Divine, and are priced separately from the standard package.

Hire the planner when you book

The Garden requires an insured professional planner for every wedding, on board at least a month before the date. Treat the month as a minimum and hire when you sign.

The caterer runs the food and the service. Your planner runs everything else: vendors, insurance certificates, floor plans, timing, and the load-in and load-out. Every outside vendor needs a certificate of insurance, and sound and lighting companies need the Garden’s approval.

Choose a florist and a band or DJ who have worked here before. They already know the access window and the rules, and that is worth more than a lower quote.

Five hours, then the lights come up

The Garden’s standard evening looks like this:

• 1 p.m.: Vendors start setting up
• 4 p.m.: The wedding party arrives for photographs
• 6 p.m.: Guests arrive
• 6:30 p.m.: Ceremony
• 7 p.m.: Cocktail hour
• 8 p.m.: Dinner and dancing
• 11 p.m.: Music off, guests leave, vendors load out by midnight

You can pay to extend, and nothing runs past 1 a.m. Subwoofers are not allowed, and the Garden can ask for the volume to come down. Book a band or DJ who can fill a room without heavy bass, and hold the after-party somewhere else.

The rules that shape the design

• No rehearsal in the Garden. Have your planner walk the wedding party through the ceremony when they arrive at 4 p.m.
• Nothing arrives early or stays late. Every delivery, installation and removal happens inside your access window. Anything left behind is thrown away that night.
• Nothing that scatters. No rice, birdseed, confetti, glitter, petals of any kind, balloons, rooted plants or aisle runners.
• No pets. Service animals are the exception.
• A generator for the ceremony is provided. Extra generators need written approval.

The list has an upside. The Garden is the décor, and it is better than anything you could bring in. Put the flower budget on the dinner tables and leave the ceremony site alone.

Most couples marry in the gardens an hour before dinner. The Wedding Day Fee covers the setup, with white folding chairs. Atrium weddings use Cherry Esplanade. Palm House weddings are given a garden site with the booking.

For the legal marriage, get a New York State marriage license at least 24 hours before the ceremony. It costs $35 in New York City and is valid for 60 days, and your officiant must be registered with the city.

The morning ceremony

The Garden also sells something much smaller: a ceremony on its own, at 9 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday, before the gates open. It costs $628 for up to 50 guests and $22 for each extra guest, up to 60.

Everyone stands. There are no chairs, no catering and no décor beyond a small portable chuppah, and it goes ahead rain or shine. You choose from the Fragrance Garden, the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, the Osborne Garden, the Plant Family Collection, the Rose Garden or the Water Garden. The Garden books two of these each morning, and the fee is nonrefundable.

It is a lovely way to marry if you are planning a restaurant lunch for 40. It has nothing to do with the Palm House or the Atrium.

Tell guests to take the 2 or 3 train, or a car to the gate named on your invitation.

The Garden has three public entrances, at 150 Eastern Parkway, 455 Flatbush Avenue and 990 Washington Avenue, and each wedding is given its own gate. Put that gate’s street address on the invitation and the wedding website. A rideshare sent to “Brooklyn Botanic Garden” can leave a guest in heels on the wrong side of 52 acres.

• 2 or 3 train to Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum: Step-free. The stop for the Washington Avenue and Eastern Parkway entrances.
• Q or S train to Prospect Park: Step-free. The stop for the Flatbush Avenue entrance. The B stops here on weekdays only.
• 4 or 5 train to Franklin Avenue: A short walk, with no elevator.
• Long Island Rail Road to Atlantic Terminal: Then the 2, 3, 4 or 5.

Airports

• JFK: 45 to 90 minutes by car. By rail, the AirTrain to Jamaica and the LIRR to Atlantic Terminal.
• LaGuardia: 45 to 90 minutes by car.
• Newark: 60 to 120 minutes by car.

Tell guests to fly into JFK or LaGuardia and to choose by fare and arrival time. Newark only makes sense when the ticket is much cheaper.

Do wedding guests need a car?

No. This is a garden wedding that guests can reach by subway, and anyone staying in Downtown Brooklyn is a short ride or a 15 to 30 minute car away.

Steer drivers away from parking. The lot at 900 Washington Avenue is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. with no overnight parking, so it closes before your last dance. Valet can be arranged through the lot’s operator if you need it.

For a hotel block, run a shuttle from each hotel that reaches the gate 15 minutes before the invitation time. Guests come in at 6 p.m., so nobody needs to be early. Send one bus back around 10 p.m. for grandparents and babysitters, and the last when the music stops.

The Garden has accessible entrances, elevators in its main buildings and accessible restrooms. Some paths are narrow, uneven or steep, so walk the step-free route from the gate to the ceremony, the cocktails and the dinner on your tour.

Early June is our pick, then September. April at the Palm House is the smart-money choice.

• April: average high 61.8°F, low 45.5°F, rainfall 4.09 inches
• May: average high 71.4°F, low 55.0°F, rainfall 3.96 inches
• June: average high 79.7°F, low 64.4°F, rainfall 4.54 inches
• July: average high 84.9°F, low 70.1°F, rainfall 4.60 inches
• August: average high 83.3°F, low 68.9°F, rainfall 4.56 inches
• September: average high 76.2°F, low 62.3°F, rainfall 4.31 inches
• October: average high 64.5°F, low 51.4°F, rainfall 4.38 inches

Central Park climate normals, 1991 to 2020. Rain is spread evenly across the year in New York, so no month is the dry one.

Late May and early June are when the Cranford Rose Garden is at its height, and the evenings are long. The sun sets after 8 p.m., so a 6:30 ceremony is in full daylight and the cocktail hour gets the good light. You pay peak rates, and this is what they are for.

September has the warmest evenings of the peak season and softer light. By the end of the month the sun is down before 7 p.m.

April is cherry season and shoulder pricing at once. The collection flowers in waves from late March, each tree for a week or two, and the ‘Kanzan’ trees on Cherry Esplanade are among the last. Book April for the price and the chance of blossom, and you will not be disappointed. Evenings are cool and heaters are not allowed, so keep the cocktail hour to an hour and tell guests to bring a layer.

July and August bring lower room fees and real heat. The rooms are air-conditioned and the ceremony is not. Keep it to 20 minutes, put water and fans on the chairs and use whatever shade your site offers.

October carries peak pricing with the coolest evenings and the shortest days of the season. By the middle of the month the sun sets around 6:15 p.m., so a 6:30 ceremony happens at dusk.

Winter has the lowest minimums by a wide margin. Book it for the Palm House itself, lit up in the dark, and plan the whole evening indoors.

One more check before you sign. Eastern Parkway is a parade route, and street closures can catch out a shuttle. The West Indian Day Parade fills it on Labor Day and the Panamanian Parade runs in early October. The Garden’s own festival days change public access too.

The Garden gives you one evening. The rest of the weekend is yours to build, and the neighborhood makes that easy.

The night before. Hold the welcome dinner near the hotels, or on Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights, the restaurant street a short walk from the Garden.

The wedding day. Leave the morning free. If it is a Saturday, send early risers to the Greenmarket at Grand Army Plaza. Hair and makeup at the hotel, the wedding party at the Garden for 4 p.m., guests at 6.

The morning after. Brunch near the hotels. On a Sunday from April to October, skip the brunch and send everyone to Smorgasburg in Prospect Park.

For guests with an extra day

This corner of Brooklyn was planned as a single cultural campus, and the Garden, the museum, the park and the central library sit within a short walk of each other. Put these on the wedding website:

• The Garden by daylight. Wedding guests arrive at 6 p.m. and see one corner of it. The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, finished in 1915, was one of the first public Japanese gardens in the country. Adult admission is $22.
• The Brooklyn Museum. Next door, by the same architects as the Palm House. The Garden sells a combined ticket, and the museum is closed on Tuesdays.
• Prospect Park. Across Flatbush Avenue. Walk the Long Meadow and stop at the Boathouse.
• Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. Every Saturday, all year, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is Brooklyn’s flagship farmers’ market.
• Smorgasburg. Dozens of food vendors on Breeze Hill in Prospect Park, Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., April through October. Enter at Lincoln Road.
• Brooklyn Bridge Park and DUMBO. For guests at the waterfront hotels. Walk the bridge in the morning before the crowds.

A note for hungry guests: Crown Heights and Flatbush, east and south of the Garden, are the center of Caribbean Brooklyn. Nostrand Avenue is the place for roti and doubles.

Best for

• Palm House weddings of 150 to 200 and Atrium weddings of 80 to 100
• Couples who want gardens for the ceremony and a permanent room for dinner
• Guest lists full of New Yorkers, or visitors happy in Brooklyn hotels
• Couples who would rather have a first-rate caterer included than choose their own
• Friday and Sunday weddings, where the numbers are kindest
• A cherry-season ceremony in April or a rose-season one in early June

Things to consider

• The Palm House Saturday minimum is $55,000 in peak season, whatever your guest count
• Five hours, an 11 p.m. finish and no subwoofers
• No tents, so the wet-weather plan is the room you already have
• Everything loads in and out on the day, under a long list of plant-protection rules
• A planner is mandatory and Union Square Events is the only caterer
• No bedrooms, and a getting-ready lounge for six

These are the questions a good planner would put to the Garden before you sign. Most of them are about money and the first two hours of the evening.

1. What is the full, dated quote for our room, date and menu, with membership, administration, tax and gratuities shown separately?
2. Is Patron membership $850 for 2028, and does an existing membership count?
3. Is the Atrium’s Saturday room fee in March, April and November $6,000?
4. Which upgrades count toward the food-and-drink minimum, and does the $30 additional main course buy guests a choice or a second served course?
5. Is a staff gratuity expected on top of the 26% administrative charge?
6. What are the security deposit, the remaining payment dates, the final guest-count deadline and the cancellation and postponement terms?
7. Can we see dinner, the dance floor and the indoor ceremony drawn for our guest count, with our band or DJ in place?
8. Does the 16-by-28-foot dance floor fit the Atrium at 100 and at 110?
9. In rain, where exactly are cocktails held, how many does that space take, and is it part of our rental?
10. Which garden site is ours for the ceremony, and who else will be in the Garden at that hour?
11. Can the invitation time move earlier for an October or winter date?
12. What does an extra hour cost, for setup and for the party?
13. Which gate is ours, where do shuttles load, what size of vehicle fits, and what parking or valet runs past 10 p.m.?
14. What is the step-free route from the gate to the ceremony, cocktails, dinner and restrooms, in dry weather and wet?
15. What are the rules on candles, hanging installations, a chuppah and drones?
16. Where and when can we take portraits in the Garden on the day?
17. How are children, vendor meals and kosher catering priced?

Prospect Park Boathouse. The neighbor across Flatbush Avenue. Choose it if you would rather have a historic building on the water than a glass room in a garden. It seats about 140 with dancing from April to November and 120 in winter, with catering by Purslane, so it sits between the Atrium and the Palm House in size.

Wythe Hotel. Choose it if you want the bedrooms, the getting-ready suite, the welcome drinks and the brunch under one roof. Its Main Hall seats up to 150 for dinner. You trade the planted grounds for a restored factory building in Williamsburg.

New York Botanical Garden. Choose it if your list has outgrown the Palm House. The Garden Terrace Room takes 120 to 300 guests. It is a ballroom overlooking the grounds, and it is in the Bronx, so the hotel and transport plan starts again.

The RoamRecs New York City wedding venue collection maps gardens, hotels, waterfront rooms and lofts across the five boroughs. Save Brooklyn Botanic Garden, add two or three alternatives and compare them side by side.

The question to carry through your shortlist: how much does the garden ceremony matter to you? If it is the wedding you have been picturing, the five hours and the rulebook are a fair price for it.